August 2014
Sarah gave me a bit of money for matt for his birthday and matt and i went to the shops while Sam and Gemma were setting everything up.
Bunderberg is actually really pretty, a large river runs through the small city and the buildings are a mix of styles between European and western. The people there are all so nice and I felt like it was an Australian version of my home town as we passed the bowling green, which most people my age in my town will only remember as the place where we would all be under age drinking back in the days. Every town or suburb has that one place eh. For the people of our hostel however our drinking place was the park by the river, since drinking in the hostel wasn't allowed. The police would regularly drive around checking on us which seemed crazy that they didn't have anything better to do. I guess crime rate must have been pretty low there.
Matt and I went to a sushi bar and I tried sushi for the first time. It wasn't too bad. In the centre of the roundabout outside was a water fountain and rather than water, had soapy foam. Obvious play time for me and matt and we both clearly had the exact same idea: FOAM FIGHT!!! Once the fun and giggles of that was over we stopped being children for a second and made our way back where matt was surprised with balloons and cake by the majority of the people in the hostel.
It was a good night spent drinking with friends and other backpackers, I actually made an effort and wore makeup for the first time since My nights out in cairns. Most girls in the hostel were wearing mascara and foundation to pick which made absolutely no sense to me at all. Mud over foundation. Nice. Wiping sweat from your brow which is making its way to your eyes whilst wearing mascara. Panda eyes. why make an effort to pick? Well each to there own... So it felt good to have an excuse to actually not look like sweaty muddy shit.
We were all making our way out of the first bar at around 12am and matt had work the following morning so was happy to head back but didn't really mind what we did. Yvonne (a girl who joined us to seek work on hamilton and joined us in Bunderberg ) kicked up a fuss that she wanted a night out and seemed a bit annoyed everyone was heading in so early. A couple of people from the hostel had headed off to the club but our group were heading in and she wasn't impressed. I asked her what was up and when she explained I simply said well its matts birthday, lets just do what he wants eh. And when she still seemed annoyed I said "hey Yvonne do you happen to be an only child..." (I blame the alcohol) she knew exactly what I was implying and responded "fuck you Beth fuck you..." Well I guess I brought that one on myself. My usual diplomatic self shining through once again! Face palm moment for any readers who know me, I know, I know, I should know when to just not say a word right? Just shut up?
When we got back to the hostel A couple of our group got caught for drinking and was made to leave the following morning. I wasn't drinking but decided to leave anyway. I'd pulled a sicky for the last remaining 3 days of my week there as I found the picking unbearable and I wasn't tolerating any of the slave labour any longer. I didn't get paid for any of my work and I still haven't 3/4 months later. I tried chasing it up with no luck, half of the stuff I picked wasn't even documented so they have no record of me. I'm pissed off but at the end of the day I had a good time outside of the farm work so it was an experience ill remember for the good times.
I decided to go for the only thing that offered security and pay that I knew how to do well. I decided to go back to working as an au pair at least till id re cooperated the money I'd lost from finding work. The au pair position advertised on gumtree was said to be in charters towers, inland from Townsville (16 hours north) and Mel, the host was offering $150 a week which was less than what I was used to but an average amount for au pairing. Scott the child I would be looking after seemed pretty easy going and Mel explained where she lived was pretty out the way from everything but the place itself was really nice. She asked a bit about myself and offered me the position.
Half of my group who were kicked out went to work in another farming hostel in Bunderberg and Sam stayed packing. Yvonne left to go back to Byron bay I think, she missed it there. Matt went to Brisbane (closest city, south) and went on to do a pedicabs job, taxiing people around with a bike in the Gold Coast.
On my way to meet matt to say bye in town, I met two guys who asked me for directions. These 2 guys were from Vanuatu, an island by Fiji. I explained how my boyfriend had always wanted to go to fiji and we were planning on going for my birthday, they said absolutely not and Vanuatu was much more beautiful than Fiji. They gave me their number and offered there place to us, they had a friend who would accommodate us also and the people of Vanuatu are very very nice like that. They were lovely people, I wish I had the money to get to Vanuatu.
I met up with matt and we walked to a main road where he could hitch hike from. He found a piece of cardboard in a dumpster at the back of a shop but needed a pen, instead he burnt something and used that to write with. When matt left I really missed him. I was alone to be clumsy again and alone to make food.
The following day I said goodbye to everyone else. I was really going to miss Sam, Gemma and Adam also and we expected to only see each other again on New Year's Eve which we all planned to spend in Sydney together.
My coach was booked to Mackey (half way point between bundy and Townsville) and a seperate one booked to Townsville from Mackey to break up the 16 hour coach journey. Ughhh!!
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